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Show The Place of Shoshoni... written down by Spanish missionaries and Aztec speaking scholars right after the Spanish conquest of Mexico. Sonoran: There are a dozen Sonoran languages spoken in northwest Mexico and Arizona. Some of the languages, like Tubar and Opata, are no longer spoken. Some are still being learned by children, as, for example, Tarahumara, with 50,000 speakers in the mountains of Chihuahua, and O'odham (or Papago, as it used to be called) in Arizona. Others, such as Mayo in Sonora, and Yaqui in Sonora and Arizona, are widely spoken by adults, but fgw children are learning it. Hopi: This branch consists of a single language, which is spoken by a few thousand speakers in several Pueblos in northeastern Arizona. In some families the children still speak the language*. The Hopi are in contact with other Pueblo peoples who speak very different languages: Tiwa, Tewa, Towa, Keres, and Zuni; Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa belong to the Kiowa-Tanoan family, but Keres and Zuni are single languages with no known linguistic relatives. Takic: There were six Takic languages, all in southern California. Three of them, Cupefio, Cahuilla, and Luiseno, are still spoken, but only by older adults. Tubatulabal: Like Hopi, this branch has only one language, which was spoken on the Kem River near Bakersfield, California. In the 1980's there was only one Tubatulabal speaker, who lived in Los Angeles. Numic: Shoshoni belong to this branch. There are three groups: Western Numic (Mono, Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute, Paviotso, Bannock), Central Numic (Panamint, Shoshoni, Goshute, Comanche), and Southern Numic (Kawaiisu, Chemehuevi, Southern Paiute, Ute). Even though there are many different names, there are probably only seven Numic languages, which are: 1. Mono (including Owens Valley Paiute), in California: Western Numic. 2. Northern Paiute (including Paviotso and Bannock), in California, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho: Wesem Numic. 3. Panamint (also called "California Shoshoni" or Koso), in California and Nevada: Central Numic. 4. Shoshoni (including Goshute), in Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming: Central Numic. 5. Comanche, now in Oklahoma, but earlier in a wider area in the southern Plains. 6. Kawaiisu, in California: Southern Numic. 7. Southern Paiute-Ute (including Chemehuevi), in Califonia, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. There is some problem in providing names for each of these languages. For example, the Ute and Southern Paiute are distinct peoples, yet they each speak languages so similar that it can be considered the same language. Bannock of Idaho is almost identical to the Northern Paiute that is spoke to the west and southwest of them. The people of Owens Valley are known as the Owens Valley Paiute, yet their language is much more like that of the Mono than like that of their Northern Paiute neighbors. |